Sage ERP X3 Warehouse Management Functions
Inventory is an important part of many companies livelihood whether they are retail, wholesale, manufacturing or a hybrid firm. And yet many businesses have not invested in the information systems that would allow them to grow more efficient and scale for growth. Typically, these systems are known as warehouse management systems (WMS) and to a company looking to invest in one, a WMS represents two challenges; the level of complexity they add, and the magnitude of cost. For companies that have made the investment in Sage ERP X3 the good news is that Sage X3 already has a great deal of WMS functionality built into it, and has the capability to develop even more advanced WMS functions as needed.
So what are the functions that a company should expect to acquire with a warehouse management system? In general the goal of a WMS should be to manage the stored materials in a warehouse and control the movements of these materials. The movements would include but not be limited to:
- Sales order and Transfer order Shipping
- Purchase Order receiving
- Material Picking (Order preparation)
- Material Putaway (Quantity return to Stock)
In order to accomplish this goal the WMS will make use of technologies that allow for the facilitation of these transactions:
- Wi-Fi / RF network for transmission of data
- Handheld computers for processing of transactions
- Barcode readers to eliminate hand entry of data
- Label generation for easy processing of bar code transactions
- Warehouse information dashboards
- Warehouse alerts
The cumulative effect of these technologies working to manage the above functions can be very meaningful, even for a small organization. There are many barometers for success, but a few tangible benefits would be:
- Increased latency of data / more real time transactions
- Inventory is touched less
- Staff is better able to be held accountable for transactions with electronic signatures
- Processes are made more transparent / visibility into current status of transactions
That’s part 1 to our overview on the SAGE ERP X3 Warehouse Management functions. Continue to watch this blog for more on Sage X3 WMS.
